Jump to content

Home

Why can't we get the good games?


Doomie

Recommended Posts

I am a pc-gamer and i'm angry at Lucasarts. Why can't they give us 'Starwars bounty hunter' and 'jedi power battles' and the likes on pc? they could earn ****loads of money and i heard it's not very hard to transfer a game from console to pc. I'd buy it. And we can sure take on those games, in days of Unreal 2 , Doom 3 and Half-life 2. I can't really see a logical reason why they don't do this...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Sam

They want people to buy the consoles.

 

thread over.

 

Lucasarts wants people to buy the games...they're not selling the hardware. Though that may not be mutually exclusive - the more decent games that come out on a certain platform, obviously the more popular it will become.

 

It's a typical marketing machine - the more you feed it, the more it grows, and so it makes sense to feed it even more.

 

The simple fact is that the console market is growing, while the PC gaming market is shrinking. AS I see it, consoles are becoming more successful because of pretty obvious reasons:

 

1. Cost. A console is cheaper than a PC to buy, and you don't really need to upgrade it until the next model comes out.

 

2. Comfort. More people simply prefer to sit in a comfortable chair in front of their TV to play games.

 

3. Stability. Because it has set specs, games developed for a console platform should be more stable and require less patching. Whereas PC games have to factor in all the different combinations of hardware and drivers - and I don't remember any PC games in recent years that haven't needed a patch soon after release.

 

4. Power. Okay, so a PC is more powerful than a console, and that will continue to be the case as technology progresses. Nevertheless, consoles have become increasingly more powerful, and as a platform matures, development teams learn to squeeze more out of it. Just look at the difference between Halo 1 and Halo 2 - and remember that it's being developed on the same platform. So the only thing that's really changed is the code. On the PC, developers are more lazy because the hardware continues to improve, so you end up buying a new graphics card just to run the latest crop of games to see all the 'speshul fx'.

 

A classic example of that is Unreal 3, due for release in 2006. Although it's supposed to be scalable, if you want to run it on highest settings, you're going to need to buy a completely new PC because they're aiming the hardware specs so high. What's the point of all that polygon pushing if all they deliver is Unreal Tournament 2006? There's too great an emphasis on graphics over content. Even some of the top industry bods (including representatives of ATI) recognise as much

 

I think this is actually serving to hurt the PC gaming industry, rather than help it, as some gamers can't afford to keep upgrading their rigs every year or two to remain 'current'.

 

So I expect the trend to continue. We'll see more 'multi-platform' development to try and keep costs down...and some publishers will actively continue to move away from the PC as a gaming platform. EIDOS have already stated this is their intention, and I've no doubt other publishers will follow.

 

If the Xbox and PS2 shipped with a mouse/keyboard combo tomorrow...how many more people would 'migrate' to gaming on consoles? Did you see what Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have planned for the future? Some of it's impressive stuff.

 

As a PC gamer myself, I don't want to see all the good games come out on consoles. However, I can see the market benefits and the business sense. The PC is more and more focusing on particular genres, like FPS, RTS and RPG. As far as the first two are concerned, I can see the PC remaining a strong contender, and we will still get the Half-Life 2's and Doom 3's...multiplayer and mods, etc. However, the console is proving it can cover those areas as well.

 

At the end of the day, I won't blame Lucasarts for not porting some of their games to PC. I'm just grateful we're still getting some PC games out of them...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But, if all those games also appeared on the pc, it would become more popular again, so then it will be good for marketing again.

 

It's just stupid... Without the pc no consoles would even exist.

 

I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wait, you said good games in the thread title and you're complaining that Bounty Hunter and JPB didn't get ported over? :D

 

Consoles were in the average family home before computers were so I don't think I can agree with your statement about the pc leading to the consoles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, i heard they were good, and i was complaining cause i never played those games and will never be able to. That also explains why your opinion is different.

 

It's just stupid... Without the pc no consoles would even exist.

Did you mean this? i wasn't sure about that, a said that.

 

Or this:

And we can sure take on those games, in days of Unreal 2 , Doom 3 and Half-life 2.

 

Well, then you are mistaken, me thinks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rhett was talking about how you said without PC no consoles would exist, which is untrue because old school console systems came out before the personal PC.....I'm not sure on the dates though.

 

 

 

But, if all those games also appeared on the pc, it would become more popular again, so then it will be good for marketing again.

 

Not true, because it is ALSO being released on consoles, and there is a much stronger buying market in consoles, as StormHammer has already pointed out. The costs of porting and distributing these games as PC games would probably not be completely cost effective, because MOST people already have it for their Xbox or PS2 or Gamecube, so they won't purchase a copy for their PC.

 

Personally, I'd say it's just in your best interests to buckle down, save up 150 dollars, and get yourself an Xbox or a PS2 if you REALLY want to play some of these games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some games are more suited to another type of playing machine, and so consoles were invented. Would you prefer playing some dumb cartoon-like game on the PC? No, so move it to something lower, something that kids like. Move it to GBA. If JPB were to come on PC, Scores would have gone below 5, because those type of games don't belong to the PC anymore. Similarly, you can't play Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy on the GBA, because it'll be too lame.

 

XBOX, Gamecube and PS2 (The Good the Bad and the Ugly) :D are like PC imitations. Some people may not have a proper configuration for a new game, so they can go for a XB/PS2/GC version of the game. This is best for RPG games, where you need to know the story more than gmaeplay (or vice-versa).

 

Overall, it's like this, some games are best played on one console, and some on another. Now do you get what I mean?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of the time the game works better on one platform or other. GTA games, for example, look better on my pc, but are much more fun to play (and unlikely to stutter) on my gamecube as they just fit in better with the improved controls and the living room atmosphere.

 

It does bug me though when games that obviously COULD be ported over aren't, as you assume it is down to some licesing deal or other. Lucasarts are messing everything except KOTOR up these days anyway.

 

What really bugs me is when console games are released on PS2/XBOX and not GC.. if you are coding for 2 platforms then it must be easy to add a third, especially as it is the easiest to code for. There are even numerous games (soul calibur 2, for example) that have sold more on GC than any of the other plaforms... but often they announce the sequel as PS2/XBOX only. grrr...

 

I look foreward to a day when games are like DVDs, they meet a common standard and play on every dvd player and the choice of machine is based on the quality and additional features, not which discs will work on it.

 

Microsoft's XNA might achieve this, but i very much doubt it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WEll, they could ofcourse put all the differently coded games on one disc, but then it'd have to be a large disc. And they also need to make something that can recognize what system you are using... But that would eb the ultimate solution.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Doomgiver

...It's just stupid... Without the pc no consoles would even exist.

 

I think.

 

that's just silly talk ! how much is a decebt gaming pc going to cost compared to an xb, ps2 or gc 20% of the price, or less......

 

thats the key factor.

 

I used to have a bee in my bonnet when I realised rogue squadron 2 and 3 would never make it to the pc. I ended up buying a cube for less than the cost of a game(ebay!), so now can play rs2 and 3 to mu hearts content, not to mention Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles :D

 

At the moment, there isnt any SW game I cant play, as I have a ps2, gc and pc. The day they release an XB only game is the day I firebomb Lucasarts.....j/k :p at the end of the day, it's all about money... If you really want to play BH, cant you hire a system for a week ? thats all you'd need, same with JPB. You could try play JPB emulated, but it doesnt come out as well as other emulated games do.....

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a few different thoughts on the PC vs Console thing:

 

- Most households had a console *long* before they had a PC (Coleco, Atari or NES), so it isn't about PC necessarily 'losing ground'.

 

- PC gaming at the cutting edge is a geeks game. I'll use my wife as an example - she is no technophobe, but is very utilitarian in her use of technology. She doesn't really get why someone would want a DVD version of a movie they already have on VHS (especially some random 80's comedy ;) ), let alone spending hundreds or thousands upgrading /replacing computers for a few games.

 

- A console is forever. Not really, of course, but the platform is stable. If you have a NES and Zelda, you can still play it, even though it is nearly 20 years old. How many people can still play Dark Forces on their PC and have the same experience as 9 years ago? Sure you could keep the old PC, but that is a different problem ...

 

- How many people keep around old PC's because they run one or two games? I have a PC in my basement - a PII/400 - that runs DOS games well and was the only thing to ever correctly run Shadows of the Empire. I still have the laptop that was the only thing that worked with my son's Spiderman Sinister Six game. Even on the Mac, Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior don't run in 'Classic' mode, so I have them on another Powerbook I can boot into OS 9.

 

- New games are fickle: Far Cry calls for a 1.4GHz PC with a 64MB video card ... but what does it *really* need? DX:IW wants 1.3GHz and a 32MB card, yet on a 3.2GHz laptop with 64MB card it runs like crap.

 

- So, predictability: it does happen that you get stutter and lag in a console game, but it works. A new PC game on a 1-year old computer might not run at all, despite what you might do to settings.

 

- Compatibility - KotOR vs. ATi Radeon.

 

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...